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Released by: IDW Publishing
Released on: February, 2014.
IDW's purchase of Wally Wood's classic silver-age comic gets a reboot at the hands of author Phil Hester and art by Andrea Di Vito. The first four issues are collected in this volume, a story arc titled The Judgement Tower and introducing a new character into the ranks.
Seemingly losing two agents at the hand of the evil Iron Maiden, The Higher United Nations Defense Enforcement Reserves group is licking their wounds and pondering how best to proceed. While Noman was beheaded he handily keeps his consciousness in backup and can just upload it into another clone body should anything befall the current one. The Iron Maiden is up to some no-good excavation in Kashmir and so the agents are taking careful steps getting into such a politically-charged region.
They have special weapons thanks to the now-departed Professor Jennings and one in particular - the Thunderbelt - is what they need to use in this situation. But it's all hooked into the user's own biofeedback circuit and thus its power matches the pain it dishes out. But agent Marshall knows of an ex-hockey player he played against that seemed to have no pain threshold. So, enter Len Brown, currently a soft-hearted enforcer for a loan shark and apparently tough as nails.
The team recruits him and improves his life but they also only give him roughly a day to get used to the Thunderbelt before throwing him out an airplane over Kashmir on his infiltration mission. He's accompanied by Noman housed in a mobile robotic bug that flits about and provides on-the-job training, too. He also gives himself the name “Dynamo,†eliciting groans from his other teammates. But he's soon on the ground, none too subtley, and encounters vet agent Guy Gilbert, who's assisting him with the locals and generally being the boots on the ground.
Meanwhile, Director Kitty Kane has to explain what's going on with her special research station, something the U.N. seriously frowns upon. But, as she ominously explains, the discovery of a mysterious tower that she's made not only speaks to humanity's creation and the existence of titans but, also, that Iron Maiden has found another tower in Kashmir…
Back under Kashmir, Dynamo finds undercover agent Adkins and he's soon got Dynamo in front of Iron Maiden who knocks him out fairly easily. Noman heads off and manages to fly into & re-activate his decapitated body, walking around carrying his head for the rest of the story. Adkins, though, finally sees the Iron Maiden without her helmet on and her secret identity sends shockwaves through the whole organization.
Outside the caves at Kashmir agent Guy has to try and get a small family away from the mysterious entrance. They think it's magic and can heal their birth-defected baby but, soon, the wife's father and his armed thugs are upon them, ready to exact holy justice. Guy stands in for them and tries to save them but, just then, the secret underground race that was using the Iron Maiden to raise the titan as their god inside that tower, decides to awaken that titan and all heck breaks out.
The titan is birthed by violence but stops when he sees Guy trying to save the family, nearly offering his own life to save those of strangers. This allows Dynamo to finally get the drop on the titan and destroy him. Iron Maiden escapes, trapping agent Adkins inside his metal armor permanently as she does, and the team now knows that there's much more they don't know about in the world…
With great nods to the Silver Age original series this new version is wonderfully playfully and exceptionally well-illustrated. Very much well worth the investment if you like a goofier take on superheroes.
